I may not be there yet, but the journey has begun!

Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strifeTheir sober wishes never learn’d to stray;Along the cool sequester’d vale of lifeThey kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

These lines from Thomas Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard glorify the beauty of an uncomplicated existence far from the madding crowd.

The madding crowd and the noise
The noise of all things unwanted
A rarity it is to find peace amidst the mayhem
If only we could run away from the madness
And find happiness in all things small

Life has become a race. The race to the top. The race to the finish. There is no time to stop by and appreciate the little joys that could mean so much. Such has become our existence. We complain of having little or no time for the little things that matter. We rarely make an effort. Probably we don’t care enough. For we are in a race. A race to the achieve something meaningful. What meaning it holds is seldom known. I would say so.

I write this for I have been touched by the gesture of a friend. A gesture quite unexpected. A kind spirit deemed it essential to get in touch no matter the means. The effort and the intent, noble.

As I would like to believe, happiness is in these little things. The uncelebrated joys. The smallest of joys that have probably lost their place. But there are some who continue to spread those little joys. Appreciated or unappreciated, they crusade with a will to light up lives in their own ways.

I thank you, my friend, for making me smile. I thank you, for that little joy of being remembered on an occasion of significance to you, despite the seven seas that separate us. As I always say, it feels good to know that times have not been left behind.